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With the increasing globalization, new organizational structures,
and rapid change the leader has been increasingly individualized
and personalized. The leader has been put under pressure to reveal a leadership, in
which the personality of the individual leader is increasingly important. Moreover,
the individual leader has become central for creating and communicating
organizational meaning, and the leaders’ personal conduct, ethics and identity are
taken to be symbolic of the organizational brand. Leaders are increasingly publicly
evaluated based on how he “tells the story” of him-self and the organization e.g. the
extent to which the leader exemplifies and lives the organizational brand. This is
reflected in a growing demand for leader development programs with a personal
orientation, and psychological oriented development focused on the individual
leaders’ personal challenges.
Recent theoretical developments in the intersection of critical management studies
and narrative identity studies have challenged prior assumptions and approaches,
with a departure in social constructivist perspectives leadership is conceived as
narrative identity construction embedded in social practice and context. Hence,
leader studies turn to investigate the emergence of leaders as processes of identity
work in particular contexts, privileging the use of language, social interaction and
critical reflexive approaches.
This dissertation explores the narrative construction of leader identity in the context
of a leader development program, examining the processes and the content of
identity work of leaders. Empirically five Danish executives from five different
industries have been studied in a three year period, starting with a one-year long
leader development program and in two following interviews. The material is
analyzed within a theoretical and methodological framework inspired by a
combination of social constructivist, discursive, narrative and critical management
approaches to identity and leadership research. The narrative analytical framework
is based on narrative theory, narrative therapy theorization, and positioning theory,
analyzing the thematic, temporal and relational aspects of the five leaders’ narrative
accounts. Hence, the analytical strategy analyzes the narrative recourses of:
problem stories, preferred stories, storylines, and the negotiation of subject
positions used by the five leaders in constructing certain situated leader identities

This paper investigates how discourse can be mobilized as a strategic resource when
introducing a public sector reform program in a local government setting. We explore how
actual day-to-day practices, contexts, and processes relate to the shaping and localizing of
broad strategic discourses. In particular, we emphasize the practices in which national
strategic formulations are legitimized and accepted or abandoned by the actors involved.
Building on a case study conducted over a two-year time span, we show how a local actor
engages with and promotes a national reform program by evoking a discourse with strategic
intentions. First we present how the national reform program is translated into a local
government by the evoking of historically produced and context dependent discourses. Next
we show that locally produced discourses need to be evoked and re-attached to the national
reform program in order to enable new local practices. Our study shows that formal reform
programs and strategies are never stable and firm objects; rather, they are constantly enacted
and changed as part of discursive practices. Thus individuals enter a discursive space from
where to engage strategically with the creation of new local practices.

In response to the recent troubled history of risk-related technological development in Europe, one institutional reaction has been to advocate public deliberation as a means of achieving broad societal consensus over socio-scientific futures. We focus on ‘consensusing’ and the expectation of consensus, and consider both their roots and their performative consequences. We argue that consensus should be seen not simply as the absence of disagreement but as a particular political and ideological formation. We consider and explore the Danish model based on the folkelig concept of the common good, before turning to the wider European movement towards consensus-building. As presented here, consensusing becomes a focus for political contestation but also for nation- and institution-building. Rather than evaluating deliberation solely in terms of its short-term instrumental effects, consensusing should also be understood as performative of national and inter-national identity.

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The aim of this work is to conduct a theoretical and empirical investigation of how the market
institution performs in the context of technology and knowledge transfer. The notion of political
markets, first introduced by Adam Smith, is extended to the artifacts of technology and their
associated factor markets. The paper develops the notion of political markets by drawing upon an
empirical case that reconstructs the chain of events related to the transfer of flexible manufacturing
systems (FMS). The case account for the various actors and institutions involved in the technology
transfer, including the firms on both sides of the market, the government, the engineering-scientists,
the economists, the union representatives and the machinists.
It is argued that Natural markets is a special case of political markets in which technologies and
hybrid entities and identities produce both the Natural market as well as its master – the pure
technological relations. Neither the Natural market, nor Homo economicus can be brought into
existence without pure technological relations. The existence of the latter is a necessary condition
for the existence of the two former, as has already been recognized by neoclassical economics. The
present work makes a constructive contribution to neoclassical economics in this respect, by
describing and analyzing all the work of purification that enters into the task of bringing the
necessary conditions into existence. Indeed, the process of purification that brings purified
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technologies, natural markets and rational identities like homo economicus into existence, require
huge investments, as do their maintenance. Technical knowledge turned out to be no exception. As
the case suggests, technical knowledge was not just a given condition, but became a produced
outcome. Yet, the process of knowledge production continued, transforming given technical
knowledge in unexpected ways. Technical knowledge also became a negotiated outcome during the
transfer of FMS. Hence, when market transaction takes place, knowledge it self can be transformed,
and with it, the conditions for conducting the market transaction. So, the notion of political markets
proposed here, suggests that knowledge can be both premises as well as an outcome of market
transaction – as knowledge, its status and distribution - can be negotiated in the process.
Instead of criticizing Homo economicus and (neo) classical economics, the notion of political
markets thus proposed imply a constructive contribution to economics, notably to the core of neo
classical economics:
Through out this paper, it is argued with reference to both theory and own empirical fieldwork, that
neoclassical economics participate in the successful purification of technological relations. Yet, in
order to provide for an explanation of such a successful outcome, it is not enough to account for
economists among themselves. As has already been suggested by Callon (1998) and the associated
work on the anthropology of markets, also such material associations as computer based
calculations and simulations of the macro-economy must be brought into the explanation. In more
specific terms, the puzzling ‘residual’ in the neoclassical production function can be explained by
now also taking into account the many subtle ways economics itself interfere in making up the
residual. Neoclassical economics only have to refine their production function by adding to it the
significance of material associations such as computer based calculations and simulations of the
macro-economy. Done properly, a revised macro-economic model would emerge, capable of
handling ‘market failures’ in new ways. Instead of attributing all failures to the market and no
failures to technology, a more symmetric distribution of failures between the two entities would be
allowed for. Further more, each time a ‘residual’ emerges from applying the revised model, it is no
longer simply due to ‘technical change’ but also due to ‘market failures’. Hence, such a revised
macro-economic model not only allow neoclassical economics to maintain the distinction between
technology and the market but also allows for the flexibility of including those entities previously
excluded, that is, the material associations and inscriptions that participates in making up the
distinctions between the two.

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Today's synthetic voices are largely based on diphone synthesis (DiSyn) and unit selection synthesis (UnitSyn). In most
DiSyn systems, prosodic envelopes are generated with formal models while UnitSyn systems refer to extensive, highly
indexed sound databases. Each approach has its drawbacks; such as low naturalness (DiSyn) and dependence on huge
amounts of background data (UnitSyn). We present a hybrid model based on high-level speech data. As preliminary
tests show, prosodic models combining DiSyn style at the phone level with UnitSyn style at the supra-segmental levels
may approach UnitSyn quality on a DiSyn footprint. Our test data are Danish, but our algorithm is language neutral.

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This paper is intended to propose a relationship-based theory of the firm (R’BT), an
alternative to the transaction cost theory. The R’BT takes relationship disharmony
(rather than transaction costs) as its basic unit of analysis of the nature of the firm, and
argues relationship disharmony derives from conflict of interests, a problem faced by
any human organizations; to reduce the conflict of interests, the best way is to
harmonize relationships by mutually accommodating or internalizing the other party’s
interests into its own consideration; the degree of harmony or disharmony in the
relationships will in turn determine the performance of the organization in question.
This paper provides a completely different explanation from the transaction cost
economics when addressing issues such like the existence, boundary and internal
organization of the firm. Also discussed are its implications for organizational
management and economy.

This report examines the effect that ECA-zone regulation has on the optimal vessel fuel strategies for compliance. The findings of this report are trifold, and this report is coupled with a calculation tool which is released to assist ship-owners in the ECA decision making.
The first key insight is the substantial impact of the current and future oil price on the optimal compliance strategies ship-owners choose when complying with the new air emission requirements for vessels. The oil price determines the attractiveness of investing in asset modification for compliance, given the capital investment required. Operating on low-Sulphur fuels remains favourable with a low oil price, as the price spread between high- and low-Sulphur does not outweigh the price of asset investments. Ship-owners who are contemplating future compliance strategies should monitor the developments of the global oil price, and consider how much time their operated vessels navigate the ECA in the future.

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Entrepreneurship and the theory of the firm are two of the fastest-growing fields in eco-nomics and management. The two fields developed largely in isolation and are only now beginning to be brought together. We argue that each field has much to learn from the other and that combining them yields a better theory of the firm and a fuller understand-ing of the nature and effects of entrepreneurship in the economy. Specifically, the Knightian concept of entrepreneurship as judgment, combined with the Austrian ap-proach to capital heterogeneity, leads to a number of unconventional insights about the nature, boundaries, and internal organization of the firm. The judgment perspective also shifts attention from the discovery or recognition of entrepreneurial opportunities to the exploitation of those opportunities through the acquisition, combination, and recombina-tion of resources, adding to our understanding of the causes and consequences of entre-preneurship.

This paper explores potential explanations behind the educational gap between young natives and immigrants using two measures, negative attitudes towards immigrants and networking, which may influence natives and immigrants differently. The paper considers, both theoretically and empirically, the impact of negative attitudes and networking taking into account that these parameters may influence high and uneducated workers as well as immigrants and natives differently, creating different incentives to acquire education for the two ethnic groups. Using rich Danish administrative data, this paper finds evidence that greater negative attitudes increase incentives for males to acquire education and that networking also increases immigrant education.

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This paper concerns Public Private Partnership (PPP) contracts in concern to the coming new 2014/24IEU public procurement directive. The new EU public procurement directive gives the public authority the opportunity to negotiate PPPs much more when they are implemented in national law. An opportunity the member states should consider using when procuring a PPP. This paper looks at the negotiation and contracting of a PPP in an economic theoretical and EU public procurement perspective and discusses how to establish an efficient PPP contract under a strong public law doctrine. Governments should consider tendering out PPP projects in the spirit of joint utility because joint utility can increase the concept of more value for money; the
cornerstone of the PPP concept. This paper discusses the positive gains from negotiation and compares it with the upcoming possibilities in the EU public procurement law. Furthermore, the paper seeks to establish a connection between public law, private law and the efficient PPP contract by drawing upon economic theory and empirical contract data from UK, US and Danish partnering contracts from the construction industry and the aim of contracting joint utility. Joint utility can increase the concept of more value for money; the cornerstone of the PPP concept. The paper draws upon existing legal
content regarding collaboration and common goals and game theory to explain the benefits from implementing similar clauses in PPP contracts.

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General practitioners’ classification of patients with medically unexplained symptoms

Mik-Meyer, Nanna; Obling, Anne Roelsgaard(Oxford, 2012)

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Resume:

In encounters between general practitioners (GPs) and patients with medically
unexplained symptoms (MUS), the negotiation of the sick role is a social process.
In this process, GPs not only use traditional biomedical diagnostic tools but also
rely on their own opinions and evaluations of a patient’s particular circumstances
in deciding whether that patient is legitimately sick. The doctor is thus a
gatekeeper of legitimacy. This article presents results from a qualitative interview
study conducted in Denmark with GPs concerning their approach to patients
with MUS. We employ a symbolic interaction approach that pays special
attention to the external validation of the sick role, making GPs’ accounts of such
patients particularly relevant. One of the article’s main findings is that GPs’
criteria for judging the legitimacy of claims by those patients that present with
MUS are influenced by the extent to which GPs are able to constitute these
patients as people with social problems and problematic personality traits.

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While scholars agree that planning and preparation is key to a negotiation’s effectiveness, negotiation research has largely focused solely on what happens at the negotiation table and little is known about what occurs in preparation for a negotiation meeting. This paper aims to redress the balance by clarifying which preparation and planning activities are undertaken to conduct a complex business negotiation compared to the recommendations found in the literature. In contrast to the majority of negotiation research this study follows a qualitative research design multiple methods of inquiry and draws upon data grounded in a large global industrial company. The results suggest that a significant number of activities recommended in the literature concerning negotiation preparation and planning do not take place in the real-world. In addition, the study demonstrated the inherent weakness of relying on an open-ended survey as the sole data source through which to understand an internal-organizational phenomenon.